A synopsis of the story

Eclipse, the third film in the Twilight
series, commences with a teenage boy, Riley (Xavier Samuel), being chased
through the streets of Seattle by an unseen supernatural assailant, hurled to
the ground and bitten on the hand. The film then cuts to the town of Folks
where we find teenager Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and teenage vampire Edward
Cullen (Robert Pattinson) engaged in a romantic afternoon in the countryside, oblivious
to the rest of the world.

However, all is not well with the rest of
the world. In Seattle people are going missing and there are reports of
gruesome murders that are supposedly the act of a deranged serial killer.
Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard), a vampire seeking revenge against Edward for
the death of her mate, is found lurking in the woods of Folks and chased off by
the Cullen family and a pack of werewolves. To complicated matters further,
Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a teenage werewolf, is also in love with Bella. The
already fragile alliance between vampire and werewolf is stretched to the limit
as both compete for Bella’s love.

The plot thickens when prescient vampire
Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene) has a vision revealing that the terrible events in
Seattle are the result of the vengeful Victoria creating an army of newly
created vampires or “newborns” led by Riley, for the sole purpose of killing
Bella.

Unable to protect Bella by themselves, the
Cullens seek assistance from the werewolves and both vampires and werewolves
work together to protect Bella as events build towards the final battle.

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is the most
violent and dark of the three Twilight films and contains intense sequences of
action violence that include violence against children, an inferred rape scene,
vampires engaged in blood frenzies, and an extended brutal battle between two
groups of supernatural beings. Examples include:

A frightened teenage boy is chased through
the streets by a shadowy vampire, knocked over and thrown against a wall. He is
bitten on the hand and we see the bite marks and the boy lying on the ground
arching his back and screaming in pain.

We hear a radio news report about people in
Seattle living in fear with mass murder being committed and blamed on a crazed
serial killer.

Jacob tells Bella that it is better that
she be dead than become a vampire.

We hear a narration of a vampire attack on
an Indian village that occurred in the past, see a male vampire standing over
the dead bodies of a woman and child that he has killed and hear that
werewolves protecting the village killed the male vampire. Flashback images show
a female vampire, the male vampire’s mate, seeking revenge against the Indians
by attacking their village. A werewolf attacks her and she tries to rip the
werewolf’s jaws apart. An Indian woman stabs herself in the stomach to distract
the vampire from killing the werewolf. The werewolf attacks the female vampire,
biting her on the neck.

A large group of vampires run rampage in
the streets of Seattle with several vampires drinking blood from the throat of
a victim lying on the ground. We see one vampire kill another vampire by
putting his fist through the vampire’s head, the head shattering like glass. We
see a car turned upside down on the street with several bodies lying on the
ground and a number of vampires drinking blood from the necks of the bodies and
hear their victims screaming.

Jacob grabs Bella and forces her to kiss
him. In response Bella punches Jacob in the face, injuring her hand in the
process.

Rosalie Hale approaches a group of
intoxicated men who make lewd remarks to her. One of the men rough handles
Rosalie, forcibly kisses her and throws her to the ground. The scene ends
leaving the inference that Rosalie was raped. We hear how Carlisle Cullen found
her in a pool of blood, saw that she was dying and saved her by turning her into
a vampire. We hear that Rosalie took revenge against the men that raped her by
killing them one by one leaving the ringleader for last. We see him in a hotel
room guarded by police. Rosalie enters the room dressed as a bride and approaches
the man who is cowering on the floor. We then hear him screaming, but do not
see any violence.

Jasper shows Bella the scars of numerous
bite marks on his arms, and tells Bella how in his past, and at the bidding of
an older female vampire, he was made to kill vampire children. Flashback scenes
show Jasper grabbing a young boy and twisting his head and we hear the sound of
bones breaking.

Riley kicks a man across ground then picks the
man up and holds him while a female vampire bites him on the neck as the man
screams

In the final battle between the vampire/werewolves
alliance and the “newborn” army we see the two sides collide head on in a
frenzied fight during which we see fists punched through the heads of vampires which
shatter like glass, heads and limbs smashed off, and necks broken. Werewolves
bite the arms, legs and necks of vampires and a vampire crushes werewolf Jacob
who changes back into his human form and lies on the ground writhing in pain. We hear that bones in the left side of his
body have been shattered and later hear Jacob screaming in pain as he has his
bones re-broken and set straight.

The lone survivor of the newborns is a
twelve year old girl who surrenders. She is killed by a member of the vampire
police who picks her up in a crushing grip and throws her. The scene finishes before
we actually see the young girl killed.

During a fight to the death between Edward,
Victoria, Riley and a werewolf, the werewolf grabs Riley’s arm in its jaws and
bites his hand off. A stump remains where Riley’s hand used to be and Riley
screams in pain. Riley hurls the werewolf against a rock and he yelps in pain.
Later the same werewolf grabs Riley by the neck and drags him off.

Riley and Victoria grab Edward and try to
rip him apart. In an attempt to distract Riley, Bella picks up a sharp stone
and cuts her arm with blood trickling down her arm.

Edward hurls Victoria through the air and
bites her head off. We see images (lasting several seconds) of Victoria’s
decapitated head lying on the ground with eyes staring. Edward throws a
cigarette lighter on to Victoria’s body which explodes in flames.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent
scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb
children under the age of five, including the following:

The werewolves depicted in this film appear
as huge wolves the size of a horse and in battle resemble real life wolves
fighting.

Younger children may be particularly
disturbed by the images of Victoria’s decapitated head lying on the ground and
Riley’s severed hand.

The film has three scenes depicting the
death of children. A young boy vampire has his neck broken by Jasper, we see
violence towards (and the inferred death of) a young girl vampire, and flashback
scenes show a vampire standing over the dead bodies of a mother and her young
child.

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group may also be
disturbed by the scenes described above, particularly the death of children.

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Younger children in this age group may also
be disturbed by some of the scenes described above.

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this
movie, including:

Edward asks Bella to marry him and Bella
refuses, joking that girls her age usually only get married if they get
“knocked up”.

A group of intoxicated men make lewd
remarks to a woman, saying that it is hard to tell what she is like with all
her clothes on.

Bella asks her father if marriage has value
in it. Bella’s father tells her that she doesn’t want to have to get married
because she is not being careful and asks if she and Edward are taking
precautions. Bella tells her father that she is still a virgin.

Bella implies that she wants to have sex
with Edward, but Edward indicates that it would be too dangerous. Bella tells
Edward that if he has sex with her she will marry him and asks him to try.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in
this movie, including:

A bare-chested Jacob lies down next to
Bella, who is freezing, and cuddles her to warm her up. Jacob makes the comment
to Edward, “Lets face it I’m hotter than you,” then jokingly tells Bella,
“You’ll warm up faster if you take your clothes off.

The film contains several scenes of Bella
and Edward kissing each other passionately on the lips. In one scene they are
lying on a bed kissing with Bella undoing the buttons on Edward’s shirt and the
pair rubbing their hands up and down each others bodies. Before the encounter
gets any further, Edward stops it by standing up and doing up the buttons on
his shirt.

Edward presents Bella with a ring which was
his mother’s and asks Bella to marry him. Bella accepts.

Jacob pulls Bella close to him and forces
her to kiss him on the lips.

Victoria kisses Riley passionately on the
lips, pulling on his lips with her teeth

Bella asks Jacob to
kiss her and the pair passionately kiss each other .

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this
movie, including:

Bella’s father drinks a can of beer.

A group of men hold and drink bottles of
beer and behave in an abusive and intoxicated manner.

Carlisle Cullen says that he has given
morphine to Jacob and would return to put in a morphine drip.

Coarse language

There is some occasional low-level coarse
language in this movie, including:

In a nutshell

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is a fantasy
romantic drama targeting teenage girls which is likely to appeal to fans of the
previous Twilight films. It contains darker themes, more romance, and a higher
level of action violence than the earlier films and is certainly not recommended
for younger teens.

The main messages from this movie are not
all positive. Self sacrifice is a strong theme. Bella is willing to give up
everything for Edward, including her life, and parents may wish to discuss the
self-destructive nature of Bella’s choices with teenage girls in particular. At
the same time both Edward and Jacob are willing to sacrifice their lives in
order to protect Bella. Jacob is willing to make these sacrifices for Bella
even knowing that she has chosen Edward over himself, while Edward is willing
to sacrifice his personal happiness in order to prevent Bella from becoming a
vampire.

Other messages include that

opposing forces can work together when they
have a common goal.

making the right choices in life is
important as all choices have consequences.